wldnas 0 Posted November 29, 2004 If like me you have noticed Tamiya latest 4WD buggy offering the RISING STORM many of you might think it is little more than a re-shell of the Gravel Hound, in some aspects that is true but its actually a lot better than the G-Hound than first thought? For starters its got a much more stylish body, with a forward control wedge shaped cockpit much like the Terra Scorcher and Vanquish and its also fitted with one of them s****y new contoured rear wings that have also started to appear on the new Tamiya Nitro buggies, other features to its credit... 8 ball races (2 for each Wheel axle), Black CVA type Oil dampers and it also comes supplied with one of the Tamiya basic ESC that seem to be supplied with most of their new kits these days... But there is something else that I have noticed from the grainey web pics I have of it... something that is a vast impovement over the G-Hound... it appears to be fitted with proper METAL dog-bones and drive cups the G-Hound has got them silly chunky plastic dog bones and drive cups similar to those fitted to the Falcon... I have yet to be able to confirm this finding as I have not yet seem a detailed enough picture of the chassis and drive train? but if my suspicions are correct then this represents a major step up on the G-Hound and from what I have seen of the pre-quoted prices for this car.. it seems to priced the same as the G-Hound Well I'm not a real fan of the G-Hound but I do like what I've seen of the Rising Storm thus far so I know what one of my first new purchases is going to be in the new year Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ideal2k 3 Posted November 29, 2004 quote:Originally posted by wldnas8 ball races (2 for each Wheel axle), Black CVA type Oil dampers and it also comes supplied with one of the Tamiya basic ESC that seem to be supplied with most of their new kits these days... id="quote">id="quote">Exactly what comes with the Gravel Hound, so no difference there. quote:Originally posted by wldnasit appears to be fitted with proper METAL dog-bones and drive cups the G-Hound has got them silly chunky plastic dog bones and drive cups similar to those fitted to the Falcon... id="quote">id="quote">The Gravel Hound doesn't have plastic dog bones. They're some sort of metal, and I don't think you're right when you say there are different ones in the Rising Storms. Basicly I don't think there's any difference between the two except for the body kit. Anyhow, I bought a set of Tobee Craft universal shafts for my Gravel Hound. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
TWINSET 1793 Posted November 29, 2004 There's a Gravel Hound exploded view here; http://www.tamiyausa.com/product/item.php?product-id=58328 Seems to have oil dampers for sure Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
irenL 0 Posted November 29, 2004 quote:from Tamiya America Website in link above The DF-02 chassis features longitudinally mounted motor and battery, and powerful Type 540 motor combined with 4 oil dampers. id="quote">id="quote">So yes, the G-Hound should, definately, inexcluably, got oil dampers/shocks. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
DJTheo 2 Posted November 30, 2004 I also like though the Rising Storm body more. Cheers Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
wldnas 0 Posted November 30, 2004 DOH!!! [8)] Typical of me to go shouting my mouth off with half baked theorys as usual without getting my fact right first [] OK to clear the air on how I came to such a ludacris conclusion... go to the Offical Tamiya web site and look at the promotional pics of the Gravel Hound and Rising Storm cars... the chassis pics are identicle for both cars... but I was only going by the ones for the Rishing Storm at the time? from what I can see of the chassis it looks to be fitted with proper thin metal dog bones... but the pics are not very detailed and I can;t make out the drive cups properly... so what I said was an assumtion as to what the car would actually be like... as it turns I was wrong [V] Now the bit about the Oil dampers..... I was sure that I heard someone say that their Gravel Hound had come fitted with Friction dampers only? since tamiya started making all their plastic dampers out of the same colour plastic (be they friction or Oil) it been a bit tricky to tell them apart from grainy low resolution Web photos, (when Tamiya made their CVA's in Bright yellow its was easy peesy) but in this case as before I was assuming that the Hound had only Friction dampers (going on the false hearsay I had received before) hence my mis-quote at the start of this thread.... (if I had looked at the Tamiya promo pics of the Hound I would have seen that it was fitted with Oil dampers [xx(] ) As for the bearings... that was sheer ignorance on my part, I did not know that the hound came with ball raced axels... I thought it was just fitted with nylon bearings? another fatal assumption [8)] so in hindsight there is nothing different about the Rising storm bar the Body style.... that would go some way to explaining why the prices of the two machines was about the same, I've given tamiya way too much credit for the re-shell on this car... My Bad as usual I've made a complete AR53 of myself.. but in saying that I've still gone and bought myself a Rising Storm off Ebay about half an hour ago [] Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
fury_dice(2) 0 Posted November 30, 2004 Dampers - the XB version has friction ones, kit has black CVAs - could be the source of the confusion. Bearings - Kit comes with enough for the drivetrain (diffs, centre shaft), axles have bushings that need replacing with 8 1150 BBs if you want them Dogbones/Cups - Shafts are metal with black plastic 'ends' holding the cross-pieces that fit in the slots in the cups (don't kow what they're called). Drive cups are plastic mated to metal gearbox out-drives. HTH. David Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
